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I told you briefly in a previous article on Chinese food and Chinese restaurants that I have not ordered dumplings anymore, because the ones I do at home by myself are better than the “original” chinese ones. And for “better”, of course, I mean they sounds better to my taste, even considering that I was rightly pointed out by a reader that my 5+1 Chinese dishes menu is the less Chinese menu in the entire history of China.

But since someone asked me how I prepare the chinese dumplings at home, here it comes a brief recipe. First of all, you should know that I’m eating only vegetarian dumplings although I am a convinced carnivore. It’s only only a matter of taste: I don’t like dumplings with meat, while I surely die of suffocation with the shrimp ones due to the allergy.

Ingredients for the dough: 200g of 00 flour, water and salt to tasteIngredients for filling: all the vegetables you like. I’ve found that all vegetables are good pretty much. I generally put a carrot, a lot of cabbage, leek, garlic, chives, shallots and a teaspoon of vegetable oil.

To prepare the dough just add water to flour, salt and mix well until the dough is quite elastic. Take a ball and let it rest.

For the filling, boil vegetables such as cabbage (you will use it later as a “side order”) and the leek. Then cut all the ingredients finely and put them into a bowl, so that they can be blended. If you like, you can also add pepper, but rarely I do it.

Take the dough and roll it out on the table. Make sure that its consistency is not too thin. Help yourself with a rolling pin or with a machine for the dough, if you have it: I set it to level 3, which is the same measure for culurgiones’ pasta.

Use a glass to give the round shape to each piece of dumpling, then put a bit of filling in the middle of each shape. I use a spoon to help me with the amounts. Then take the dumpling in one hand and close it with the other hand: I use the technique to close culurgiones learnt from my cousin, but you can also use the classic wheel cutter, even though the dumplings lose in appearence: P

Once closed, dumplings are ready to be cooked. Boil water and let cook them into it for a few minutes, until they come to the surface. Many people use to salt water as they usually when they prepare pasta, but I don’t generally salt the water. Meanwhile, anointed a large frying pan with a drop of oil, and pan-fry some leaves of cabbage cut into strips. When dumplings are ready, pan-fry them along with the cabbage and wash down them with a lot of soy sauce.

I was able to to eat dozen of dumplings at dinner, as they are light and pretty much digestible. And my guests have assured me that they are delicious :)